Saturday, March 2, 2013

PAKISTAN, AN EVOLVING STATE

B.RAMAN

In our preoccupation with the anti-India activities
of the Pakistani jihadi organisations, we
should not overlook the positive factors that have brought a ray of hope not
only to Pakistan, but to the region as a whole.

2. The most positive factor is the fact that the
mainstream political class in Pakistan---with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)
and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of Mr.Nawaz Sharif in the forefront---
have been showing for the last five years since the last elections were held a
greater sense of political balance and maturity than ever before in the history
of Pakistan.

3. The past habit of political leaders of running
to the Army as an institution or to individual Army officers for help in
countering the activities of their political opponents is slowly fading away.
There is a welcome realization in the mainstream political class that it cannot
escape its share of responsibility for the Army acquiring the role of an
arbiter in political matters.

4.All mainstream political parties now realize that
to curb the political role of the Army and to promote genuine democracy,it is important that the political parties
fight out their differences in the legislatures and town halls and should not
take them to the army for arbitration.

5. It is this balance, maturity and self-restraint
that contributed to the present PPP-led coalition being able to complete its
normal tenure of five years. The credit for the remarkable fact that the
elected National Assembly and the civilian Government have been able to
complete their tenure of five years should go not only to the mainstream
political parties but also to the senior Army leadership headed by Gen.Ashfaq
Pervez Kayani, the Chief of the Army Staff, who resisted the temptation to
intervene on occasions when they could have done so without creating a public
outcry.

6. The controversy over the role of Mr.Hussain
Haqqani as the Pakistani Ambassador to the US was one such occasion when the
Army leadership was under considerable provocation to act to express its
indignation over the back-channel assurances allegedly conveyed to the US by
Haqqani regarding the steps which the Asif Zardari Government would be prepared
to take in return for the US support to the civilian leadership.

7. The fact that Kayani resisted the temptation and
urge to intervene reflected well on him and the senior officers under him. By
exercising self-restraint, the Army under Kayani contributed to the continuance
of the elected civilian leadership for its normal term of five years.

8. The Army still claims for itself the primacy of
decision-making in matters concerning national security in general and
relations with India in particular. It is still not prepared to allow the civilian
leadership a role in monitoring and supervising the functioning of the Armed
Forces. But, it is now prepared to keep away from politics if its primacy in
decision-making in these matters is respected by the elected leadership.

9.This unwritten code of compromise between the
political and military leadership can be an important first step towards the
evolution of Pakistan as a genuine democracy.

10. Despite sectarian and
jihadi violence, Pakistan is not a failed State. Despite its economic
difficulties, Pakistan is not a failing State. The last five years have shown
that Pakistan is an evolving State. It is still an ideological State. It is
still attached to the ideology of its founding fathers. But it is an ideology
tempered by political maturity, balance and pragmatism. It is in the interest
of all of us to encourage this evolution. ( 3-3-13)